A bright spot in the economy these days seems to be the relative strength of small business. We continue to field a lot of requests for the best 2 line cordless phones. Most are searching out the best 2-line DECT 6.0 (1.9GHz) model. Because not one of the four available 2-line DECT 6.0 cordless phones works for everyone, we felt that it might be valuable to lay out the differences.

Philips SE6591B -

• Pros: Good sound quality, solid build quality/reliable, one of the best color displays we’ve seen
• Cons: Delay when keying in numbers; Call transfer requires an extra step; Music-on-hold can be annoying and cannot be adjusted

Panasonic KX-TG9391T / KX-TG9392T -

• Pros: Good sound quality, reliable, cool features (ex. lower volume of annoying call waiting tone)
• Cons: Volume can’t be turned up that loud (not great for louder environments), average display, keys quality is average

RCA 25250RE1 / 25210RE1 -

• Pros: Long Range, Long Range and Long Range (the longest range off the shelf model we’ve tested)
• Cons: Average to less-than Average voice quality, Average Build quality, Cannot use a standard headset with it (only the RCA headset is recommend but it doesn’t seem to available on the market)

Verizon V500AM-2 -

• Pros: Solid sound quality including good speakerphone, solid build quality
• Cons: Some key delay (though not as much as Philips)

Wow – this is a popular topic these days. Cordless Workz gets multiple calls per day from consumers asking when a 2-line DECT cordless phone will be available. Manufacturers are bent on using market research data to determine that the 2-line market is dead. It may have shrunk a bit, but it’s not dead. In fact, the available 2-line phones on the market have shrunk faster than demand. From a cordless phone manufacturing experience, demand research should require more than reviewing the current market size. 
 

So, is anyone working on a 2-line DECT cordless phone? Yes. Based on what little birdies have told us, we believe that there will be a 2-line model on the market by Q2 2008 (early summer)…or at least we’ll have more details on a launch date by then. 
 
What about a 4-line DECT phone? Yeah, right. We can dream. This is probably at least a year away. 
 

Hopefully we’ll all learn a bit more at the annual CES show in Las Vegas in January…